A. Q. Shipley stretched on the sidelines of Holuba Hall. Four of his teammates laid close by the senior center, sprawled on the turf, gasping for breath and writhing in pain.

"My legs are dead," yelled junior linebacker Navarro Bowman after pushing a resistance sled down and back the width of two football fields.

But Shipley was unfazed. He had already survived four Lift for Life challenges, and appeared calm as he prepared for his fifth and final assault on the course filled with leg presses, pull-up bars and tractor tire flips.

But the calmness Shipley displayed on the outside contrasted greatly to the fire growing on the inside, fueled by every second of heavy metal blaring through his iPod.

That's what the co-captain needed to push himself to the limit and help his team regain its title.

But despite all of that intensity emanating from Shipley. Despite all of the screeching heavy metal music screaming out of his iPod. And despite four years of experience on the course, Shipley's team fell short of its goal.

The winning team, nicknamed 'A million here! A million there!,' wasn't comprised of the senior lineman. Instead, senior quarterback Daryll Clark, linebacker Josh Hull, and tight ends Greg Miskins and Mickey Shuler took the crown.

"Hell, that's it, one word," Shipley said when asked to describe Lift for Life.

"But in the same sense you get through it because of what it's for."

The event, which started in 2003, is the largest student-athlete-run philanthropy in the country. Since its inception, Lift of Life and its parent group Uplifting Athletes, has raised $300,000 for kidney cancer and other rare diseases, which are diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 Americans. Because of their obscurity, rare diseases do not receive the same amount of funding as other diseases.

Knowing that their lifting to help treat people allows the players to put the pain they go through in perspective, according to senior defensive end Josh Gaines

"There's people that go through a lot worse things than we go through everyday," Gaines said. "Every one of us out here are blessed.

There are people that are fighting for their lives all the time.

"Everyone out here has lost someone to cancer so it's something we're doing for a good reason."

Lift for Life also provides a much-needed break from the normal summer running and lifting regimens. But just because the players are in shorts and T-shirts instead of helmets and pads doesn't mean there's a lack of competitiveness. There was plenty of smack talk and screams from the crowd.

But through it all, Shipley remained calm, displaying the demeanor of a fifth-year senior. Taking a break from his hard rock, he's the real reason why 96 players showed up to push themselves to the limit, and in some cases lose their lunch.

"It's great for competition, that's the main thing, ya know, anytime you can have competition you get better," Shipley said. "The fact that it's for a great cause, you're going to work that much harder for everyone, it's kind of like once it starts hurting you realize what the cause is for and push that much harder."